Utah's Greenbelt Program Has Caused Unintended Effects on Farmland Protection
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Publication Title
Choices Magazine
Volume
39
Issue
3
Pages
1-6
Abstract
Since the 1950s, the amount of farmland in the United States has decreased continually every year. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s 2022 Census of Agriculture, total farm acreage nationwide fell by 74.7 million acres, an area the size of Nevada, between 1997 and 2022. Utah is among the states that lost farmland during this period, experiencing a decline of 13%, primarily because of urban expansion (Siu, Li, and Caplan, 2023). This trend raises concerns about the effectiveness of the state's farmland protection policies.
This article highlights a recent study that assessed whether and the extent to which Utah's preferential farmland tax assessment program has protected the state's scarce agricultural land resources. The study shows that smaller agricultural parcels in Salt Lake County (home to Utah's largest metropolitan area) were protected by the program between 2010 and 2018, but an increasing number of larger agricultural parcels were developed for urban uses, a trend that undermined the program's conservation target (Siu, Li, and Capla, 2023). These findings underscore the complexity of leveraging tax incentives for agricultural land conservation efforts and the consequent importance of thoughtful policy design and implementation.
Original Publication Citation
Li M., Siu W., Capla A. 2024. "Utah's Greenbelt Program Has Caused Unintended Effects on Farmland Protection". Available online at https://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/submitted-articles/do-current-us-ethanol-policies-make-sense/utahs-greenbelt-program-has-caused-unintended-effects-on-farmland-protection
ORCID
0000-0003-2001-5317 (Siu)
Repository Citation
Li M., Siu W., Capla A. 2024. "Utah's Greenbelt Program Has Caused Unintended Effects on Farmland Protection". Available online at https://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/submitted-articles/do-current-us-ethanol-policies-make-sense/utahs-greenbelt-program-has-caused-unintended-effects-on-farmland-protection
Comments
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